Bounce
by dammit.taken
Summary: A story about Jodie dealing with her life and finding happiness after leaving Lawndale.


**Bounce**

Jodie Landon checked her harness one last time. They were approaching the maximum altitude, and she wanted to shine on her HALO jump. Her main chute and reserve chute were both folded perfectly. She took her time earlier after locking the hangar's Ready Room. Zero distractions meant perfection, and everything looked perfect. They always did, but this film should be the best yet, in many ways. The wing-suit worked better than perfect, and the amount of flight time would be her longest recorded.

She tilted her helmet and un-bound the tension-clip on the video camera. The batteries were full, so she turned the diminutive device on and held it in front of her face. She was thankful the door was still shut, otherwise the wind-rush would have drowned out her words.

"Hey there. I'm doing another HALO jump today. Twenty thousand feet. Yep, that's right. Any higher and the regular pre-breathing exercises won't cut it. Hypoxia sucks, literally. Been there, got the t-shirt, spend the time in the hospital. All I can say is this jump is for my little sister Rachel. Gonna be one hell of a ride."

Jodie took the mount and clipped it back, then locked the tension-cam.

The words filtered over her helmet's speakers. "You ready, Jo?"

Jodie held her thumb up so the jump-boss could see.

"On three… Two… One! Door opening!"

The rush of wind caught Jodie in the face, buffeting her madly. Her grip on the oh-shit bars tightened. She had the pre-jump jitters, and her adrenalin rush was intoxicating. She took several deep breaths and exhaled slowly, feeling the tension bleed away. Without further movement, she let go of the hand-holds and slipped from the fuselage.

The rush was intense- her body seemed to exult in the freedom, and not for the first time Jodie reflected on everything in her life that brought her into sky-diving. Images flashed before her inner mind, each flash one more step into who she was now.

The fall-out with Mack was a low-point in her life. She knew the relationship wouldn't survive much past graduation from Lawndale, but still, seeing him in Jane's arms so soon afterward was too much. Jodie withdrew into herself socially that summer, and when school started at Turner, she joined as many clubs as possible. Drama, Tennis, a Poetry Club, even the Archery Club. By the beginning of her second year, she was long past burnout, and some of her sorority sisters convinced her to go bungee jumping. They chickened out, but Jodie fell in love with the freedom once she was airborne.

She was hooked.

Summer jobs involved saving money for more trips to go jumping. One fateful trip to West Virginia for Bridge Day ended with a random hook-up. The sex was good, but the cuddling afterward was much better. Stan told her about his experiences with skydiving, and she knew she had to try it.

Jodie Landon dropped out of the other clubs. She worked two part-time jobs to save for the lessons, and once she was able to jump solo, she was approached by some engineering students.

"We heard you skydive," they said. "We've got a wingsuit design… Should offer longer glide times. You know, falling with style…"

The remark was especially poignant since the two grad students that pitched the design to her looked like Woody and Buzz Lightyear, down to the cowboy hat on the beanpole and the silly stocking cap on the fireplug that read **Up Up and Away**.

"I'll do it, but I want to see the design in the wind tunnel."

"We can do one better. We have access to the lab at Wright-Patterson. You can suit up and fly it."

The first suit gave her a broken arm right away when she tried turning. She slammed into the ground at the equivalent of seventy miles an hour. If "Buzz and Woody" had removed the crash-pads, she'd have been crippled permanently.

The second suit a month later revealed the fabric was too stiff; it bound in her gut and crotch and made her sick to her stomach after a minute of air time. Everybody helped her clean up the vomit, though.

The final revision flew like a dream. By the end of the second minute, she was trying somersaults at eighty miles an hour.

 _Passing nineteen thousand… God this thing handles like a dream._ Everything slowed down to a crawl when she was in the air. She held her arm near and watched the seconds tick past the Roman Numeral VI on the face of her watch.

 **Thirty-One**

An hour passed

 **Thirty-Two**

Another hour- the conversations with Brittany about a breast reduction. The make-up with Mack. Attending his wedding to Jane as one of his two "Best Men" along with Kevin. Daria was Jane's "Best Man" as well. Both Daria and Jodie wore tuxedos with a feminine cut, and the ensuing celebration was wonderful, especially when Jodie caught Kevin and Daria sharing a kiss after everything winded down. Lips were sealed and promises were made, but Jodie knew something magical happened.

 **Thirty-Three**

Most of her friends were in serious relationships now. Even Brittany met a guy, a hillbilly with a PhD in chemistry and a penchant for bubbly blondes that can shoot a gun and drink a grizzly bear under the table. Only Jodie stayed single; she was Rene Lane's god-mother now.

Time was standing still.

 **Thirty-Four**

Jodie snapped back to _**Now**_ and spread her wings. The wingsuit exploded into action and she grinned. This was living.

Each movement was amplified into Something More, and she reveled in the concentration it took to track true. Her first banking turn was amazing, and each following turn led her on a path that could only be described as orgasmic.

 **Forty-Three**

A quick glance at her watch… Another turn.

The sky was _So Perfect_. Little fluffy clouds on the horizon saluted her from a distance. The deep blue sky was a startling contrast to her silver and black wing-suit; she turned her head slightly and looked to her left, then tilted a tiny fraction.

 **Forty-Four**

The banked turn tugged at her face; the tears streaming under her yellow-lensed visor were those of joy. She was alive again, no longer the earthbound Jodie Landon, stuck in a life that meant nothing to anybody, not even her parents. She thought of them; their disdain at her new-found hobby and change in majors. Jodie was pursuing a mechanical engineering degree, not Law.

 **Forty-seven**

Her own parents practically disowned her.

 **Forty-Eight**

Another huge turn. The parched land below magnificent in browns and reds and white, the brightness of the snow-capped Wasatch Range, and far off in the distance, the Great Salt Lake. The giant strip mine was even visible, bands of color clear even at her linear distance, or perhaps because of it.

 **Fifty-Two**

The email from her kid sister, affectionately named Rebellious Rachel, indicating she met a "nice guy" at a party.

 **Fifty-Three**

Then Rachel being found dead in a ditch.

Jodie felt the weight of the world come crashing down on her. _Not this again. Not this! My baby sister…_

Jodie loved her sister. Rachel was the rebellious one; their parents realized that Rachel was not like her sister the first time they mandated the younger girl join the Tennis Team. Rachel bought an airbrush with her allowance instead of a tennis racquet. Her artwork was magical.

 **Fifty-Six**

Everything Jodie wanted to do but was too afraid of doing- Rachel did.

 **Fifty-Seven**

Talking back to her parents. Refusing to join clubs or sports team. Not going to church. But Rachel was smart about it, flawless even. She was more the contrarian than even Daria was. Ever cynical, she was just as smart, a straight-A student with zero respect for authority. Especially her parents.

Rachel died. In a ditch.

Jodie remembered being tasked with going to the morgue to verify it was Rachel since their parents each made prior engagements and could not go.

 _Assholes! What parents cannot even pay respect to their own daughter! Screw them. They ruined both of us._

Jodie stopped looking at her watch. She knew she didn't care anymore. Not about anything. The note she left in the hangar explained everything. She could finally be free, the way she wanted. Her terms. No more _The Landons, Mister and Missus_ , giving her grief about how she betrayed the lifestyle they set up for her. No more crap about becoming a spinster. No more garbage about Jodie letting the family down because she refused to embrace her own heritage.

 _Heritage my ass. Their heritage. I've left my mark. My name is on a dozen patents. And the royalties will be there for Evan when he's old enough._

She could see the ground coming. Her glide took her well over the twenty miles she hoped for. The suit worked perfectly. Of course, it was still a thin aramid-fiber composite. It felt like she was naked, even over her polypropylene under-suit. It wouldn't cushion a landing. Especially a bounce.

 _They told me bouncing is bad. Of course it is. The hydrostatic compression of an object that is ninety per-cent water means it will bounce, quite literally, into the air. Liquids don't compress very well, do they? I certainly won't._

The ground was coming close. Too close. She could see the faces looking up in awe. Somebody pointed, and then their collective mouths dropped as they saw her wave.

She thought of her god-son Rene, the budding relationship between Daria and Kevin. Daria would understand after her own ordeals. Mack and Jane- of course they would. Brittany would be the most hurt, but she had the best relationship. She would understand. A smile slipped across Jodie's lips as she slammed into the ground and bounced.


End file.
